Life is Strange - Stranger Storms Part 8
by Mahros
Summary: Chloe, Max, Emma, Osira and Obix are trapped in Sun City. Makes sense only with parts 1-7 and effectively concludes part 2. Some swearing from Chloe Price.


FOURTEEN

"I am Diviner Tarpeius Macula," the man across from Emma announced. She glanced at him; a dour expression on his face lightened as he looked at her. For all their faults, the men of Sun City seemed so embarrassed if noticed checking out any woman that Emma wonder how the population was still managing to grow. The way Macula studied her with a louche smile on his scarred face creeped her out. Osira, beside her, was too busy observing the menacing android at the back of the room, the rail rifle appearing toy-like in its armour-plated hands.

"Emma Price-Caulfield. Osira Greystream," she responded, although he must have known who they were.

"The two older women are a couple and this is their daughter," Macula told the Knight beside him, evidently trying to provoke a reaction.

"That is not permitted in Sun City," the taller man stated firmly. "At least, it was not." He looked quizzically at Macula, who ignored him.

"It is selfish," Macula told her, conspiratorially. "Semi-accepted for infertile men and women but if you can produce children then the state needs the next generation."

"Yet the Order has no such constraints and is managing just fine," Emma responded.

"The Order," Macula mused. "Such a misnomer. 'The Anarchy' would be more appropriate."

"Better anarchic and free than ordered and chained," Emma said while internally wincing at sounding like Chloe-mom.

Macula smiled patronizingly. Similar to Scarrow, his amusement clearly came from being in charge.

"We are not chained but all pulling in the same direction, dragging humanity back to its destiny," he explained. "To that end, tell me what happened at Fort Jinyo."

Out of the corner of her eye, Emma noticed Osira force her attention from the android. Emma considered that Macula knew they were at Fort Jinyo and had already asked her parents but wanted more details or confirmation.

"What do you want to know?" Osira questioned. "I saw very little."

"Tell me what you did see," Macula directed and leaned back.

"Explosions. People dying. Rail weapons tearing unarmed people apart," Osira said.

"What are rail weapons?" Macula asked.

"Guns that accelerate projectiles using electro-magnetism to hyper sonic speeds," Osira replied before Emma could stop her.

"And you, a trader, know of them and how they work," Macula said but if Osira had been caught out, she retained her equanimity.

"We do not have many of them but the Order knows how to make them," she explained calmly. "As you know, I specialise in technology and rail technology is hardly secret. I have pushed for more peaceful applications, such as transportation."

Osira had managed to confuse Emma as to whether she was lying and hoped Macula was equally thrown.

"Your talents seem wasted being a hireling to itinerant merchants," Macula said.

"Only because you expect everyone to have defined roles," Osira shrugged. "I have seen a radically different society that uses propaganda and manipulation to keep its citizens compliant only for it to be captured by people claiming to be their friends. I have seen a calmer, more peaceful way of living and I have seen technology applied for domination. Things I would not have observed sat at a research bench."

The Knight of Liberty looked at Osira as though she had begun speaking a different language or said that sand was edible. Macula narrowed his eyes, suspicious but apparently accepting the soft-int specialist's reasons.

"Then you are knowledgeable enough to explain what happened to the attackers," he eventually said.

"Blown up by defence force rail guns," Osira answered while Emma thought on whether there was anything she could do.

"You see, there's an inconsistency somewhere," Macula said to the Knight seated beside him. "That same attempt at evasion."

"We're not trying to evade anything," Emma objected. "You obviously don't know what it's like to be under fire and scared that part of you is going to be destroyed before you are aware that it is happening."

She turned to the Knight of Liberty: "Any force that would try to raze a town of civilians will not tolerate any dissent on your part."

The man stared at her but said nothing.

"There will be no dissent because Sun City is part of the Eternal Mandate," Macula stated. "It would be like your hand disobeying you. Now, stop trying to cause discord between us and answer the question. Your 'parents' told us what we wanted to know without requiring physical coercion and I do not like the idea of such pretty hands becoming swollen and blackened."

Any pretence of Macula being other than an interrogator had gone but he waited for her response. Emma turned to Osira, who looked back but was no help in knowing what to do. If they admitted to having destroyed the mercenary APCs it would lead to the Horizons building and possibly the device. The idea of it being in the hands of the Eternal Mandate and Max-mom being forced to use it was terrifying.

"We are just traders," Emma tried. "We just want to make a living and got caught up in a battle."

"It's far too late to play innocent," Macula said and turned to the android with its head almost touching the ceiling but then the door opened.

Emma twisted round to see Stokes, flushed with a sheen as though he had been running.

"Glabrio wants to see these two," he said but then Chloe-mom was behind him and fired a rail pistol at the android's head. Pieces of armour exploded everywhere. Black fluids squirted from severed tubes but the android remained upright.

"Give me a fucking excuse to blow your head off as well," Chloe screamed at Macula, who stood, looking shocked.

"I had this," Stokes shouted.

"No, Stokes, you really did not," Max gasped, leaning on the doorway with blood pouring out of her nose and even the corner of her eyes.

Emma thought for a moment that Chloe was going to shoot and everyone seemed to hold their breath.

"Max?" Chloe whispered.

"No but only because of what it would do to you," Max replied.

"You can't…" the other Knight of Liberty whispered and Emma saw Chloe's finger tighten on the trigger.

"Emma, he broke… he was going to break your fingers," Chloe said through gritted teeth.

"No," Emma voted.

"Osira?"

"You can't decide a man's fate this way," Stokes objected.

"You do," Max said, which appeared to give the captain pause.

"Yes," Osira declared but then immediately changed her mind: "No, I could not pull the trigger and I will not pass judgement without doing the deed. Besides, what was that phrase of yours? It is not who we are?"

Chloe fired.

The shot blasted apart Macula's hand. Blood and bone sprayed against the wall and the still standing, headless android. The Eternal Mandate officer looked at the stump his arm ended in with blood pouring out of it.

"Time to go," Chloe growled. "Stokes, start earning your keep and get their guns."

"He's going to bleed out," the other Knight managed, looking as pale as Max and only slightly better than Macula, staring at the end of his arm as though unable to understand where his hand was.

"That was not necessary," Stokes commented but he seemed as disturbed by the violence as the others.

"Traitor," the other Knight spat as Stokes took his rail pistol. Osira was stepping around the blood to get a closer look at the mech but also took the silver circlet from Macula's head.

"Me?" Stokes exclaimed then sneered: "I'm not the one helping the invaders."

"I will lock you all in here if you don't hurry," Chloe warned. "Get a move on."

Emma levered the rail rifle out of the android's hands, leaving the machine's arms in the same position as though it was still holding the weapon. The other Knight was bandaging Macula's hand with his uniform's jacket.

Chloe led them out into the corridor and Emma passed the rail rifle to Osira so she could support Max. There were several people in the corridor.

"We are fighting back against the invaders!" Stokes announced when someone asked what was happening. "Glory, honour and victory for the Knights of Liberty!"

Emma heard Chloe mumble a string of obscenities.

"How bad was it?" Emma asked. It felt like picking at a wound or asking about an accident but she had never seen Chloe-mom so outraged or been prepared to shoot an unarmed person.

"The android was on your third finger. It… well, you really don't want the details, Em. Six rewinds to get there before it started and get the shot right," Max replied clearly tired but speaking rapidly to explain. "There have been occasions when I have hated this power of mine, cursed having to choose between terrible choices, but I am more grateful than I can say this time. I should not have rewound with Chloe that first time then she would not have remembered seeing it but it was instinctive to reach out and take her with me."

"It's done," Emma stated. From the time period she had experienced, Macula had done nothing beyond asking questions and Chloe had mutilated him. However, considering the morality of it or what she would have done had the roles been reversed would have to wait.

"This is why I should not have sought you out," Stokes was saying in a low growl. "You have no control."

To Emma's surprise, Chloe did not respond but they moved quickly through the streets led by the captain. Whether he was concentrating on escaping or thought he had brow-beaten her mom, Stokes was then also quiet. She understood his reaction: Max and Chloe had seen something he had not, prevented it from happening and then crippled Macula anyway.

"There! Stop them!"

Emma looked up to see a squad of five Knights in dark green uniforms, accompanied by an android. The machine levelled its rail weapon.

Max rewound time, again. The Knights of Liberty went back around a corner at the double. Emma felt herself move backward, feeling as though she had lost all control of her body. It was only for a few seconds but disorientating, her mind recalling everything that had happened but her body retracing the steps she had taken. She wanted to turn around, to avoid bumping into anything. Then she was experiencing the same moments normally again, albeit with a tightness behind her eyes.

"Stop," Max said hoarsely.

"Stop!" Emma repeated loudly. "A patrol."

Stokes glanced back at her with clear disbelief but Emma and the other pirates were moving into a side street, although even that was uncomfortably wide and open for hiding.

"In here," Osira directed and they entered an apartment block. The idea of the homes being unlocked still seemed the strangest part of Sun City.

Emma looked at Stokes, shaking his head then his eyes widening before hurrying to join them.

"How did you know? You can't be in here: this is a male apartment!" Stokes declared as he entered.

"They did not see you?" Osira checked. Chloe was holding the rail pistol as though considering throwing it away.

"Go to her," Max whispered but she seemed more in need of support than Chloe. Pale and drawn with caked blood on her face, Max had the appearance of a corpse.

Easing her down against the wall, Emma went to Chloe.

"Give me the gun and support Max-mom," she instructed her. Emma wanted to look after both of them but could not while on the run. She hoped taking the weapon from Chloe and letting her support Max was the best alternative.

"I blew his hand off. This is not who we are," Chloe told her with a haunted expression but released the pistol to Emma before going to sit with Max.

Stokes was at the door, holding it ajar to peer out. The apartment block was of identical design to the one she had stayed in with Chloe but the walls were painted pale blue with a 10 centimetre black band painted around the top. Slogans in silver were written on it mostly in three verbs: Peace, Prosperity and Purpose; Honour, Integrity and Fidelity; Sun City before Self. Emma was worried about Chloe-mom: no sarcastic comment or suggesting tags, instead just sat pressing against Max, their heads touching.

"What are you doing in here?" demanded a man coming down the stairs in a burgundy and grey uniform. It was harsh but she needed Chloe to snap out of her introspection and lead them on.

"Are you a loyal Knight?" Stokes asked.

"Loyal?" the man queried.

"To the Knights of Liberty or to the Eternal Mandate," Stokes clarified.

"Lord Salisbury ordered us to surrender," came the response.

"Lord Salisbury is dead. I am leading those opposed to being conquered by the treacherous vermin," Stokes declared. "If you are true to the Knights of Liberty and all we stand for, you will say nothing of our presence."

"Yes, sir. Trooper Kirkland, supply. You can rely on me in this and anything else, sir," the man announced, standing at attention.

Stokes moved up to him and held out his hand. The trooper looked perplexed, pausing before hesitantly shaking it.

"Do not attract attention but remain true to the Knights, Kirkland," Stokes said. "Now is not the time but it will come." The captain indicated the painted wall. "'Honour, Integrity and Fidelity.' They are more than words."

Emma noted Chloe watching them, although could not discern what she was thinking. Then they were moving again, out the building and walking quickly through the streets. Stokes led further forward, checking at each corner to peer around it and keeping close to apartment doorways. They had to enter one as a squad ran past but the Eternal Mandate appeared to be sending troops to the elevators while the pirates were heading in the opposite direction.

They skirted past the amphitheatre where justice was voted on then continued on to where it was carried out. Emma wanted to hang back with Chloe and Max but she had the only working rail pistol and stayed ahead. Osira was carrying the rail rifle taken from the android but had no tools for prying its chip out. She also had the circlet on her head and Emma had to ensure Osira kept with them as whatever was displayed was distracting Osira to the point of barely seeing where she was going.

"There's much I can't get at but Obix and Torus should still be at the Expulsion Gate," Osira declared. "Torus is flagged as 'Joddrel Town', so they don't have any use for him. Obix is flagged as 'rad-addled', fortunately. I think their status would change had they been killed."

"The area for the condemned," Stokes announced. "I have never been, therefore I need to reconnoitre. Wait here."

"Emma, go with him, please," Chloe requested and Emma looked at her with concern. The amount of times Chloe had said 'please' she could count on one hand and saying the word sarcastically accounted for half of those.

"I will not be hampered by having some woman along watching and second-guessing me," Stokes frowned. The execution area was separated from the rest of the city by a concrete curve bulging out from the outer wall, unlike everywhere else with square construction. There was only one way in, which had a pair of guards and a sign over the single black door with 'Expulsion Room'.

Chloe stared at Stokes but seemed to be about to accede to his refusal.

"Tell them I have permission from the Mandate to see Obix. Or escort me in as a prisoner," Emma suggested and she could see him working the idea in his head, looking for a reason to refuse but gave a curt nod. Emma gave the pistol to Obix for safekeeping as Stokes strode towards the door, leaving her to follow, which hardly suited if he intended her to be a prisoner. The two troopers noticed his approach and stood at attention. Neither had circlets and it seemed that the news that Stokes and the pirates were now enemies had not reached them.

"Prisoner for expulsion," Stokes announced and made to continue in.

"Sorry, sir, only the condemned and the E-M's are allowed in," one of the guards declared.

"I am a captain in the Knights of Liberty, _Trooper,_" Stokes declared, his face flushing. "Since when do I need permission to go anywhere in Sun City?"

"Respectfully, sir, since the E-Ms took over," the guard stated, although staring into the distance.

"Are you more loyal to the Eternal Mandate than to the Knights of Liberty?" Stokes queried, his jaw clenched.

"Stop!" the other guard ordered as Emma had started creeping away, hoping to be noticed while trying to look surreptitious. She meekly came back but hope of being ordered in were dashed as the guard then ignored her.

"The Knights are now part of the Mandate, sir," the first responded. "There is no difference. Lord Salisbury ordered that we submit to them."

"Lord Salisbury is dead," Stokes observed and Emma wondered how long they would argue before the guards became suspicious.

"Yes, sir but his orders stand, as you know, sir," the guard responded. "If this woman has been judged then she has to go in but our orders are no-one else. Only those assigned as attendees are allowed to ever leave."

"Name," Stokes demanded.

"Trooper Rodriguez, sir," the guard declared with an air of defiance fuelled by being in the right.

"Then she is your responsibility," he stated but looked at Emma apologetically, an expression which surprised her.

"Shout when you need help," Stokes whispered and, despite how patronizing it was, Emma appreciated that he would not just leave her.

"I know you are an outsider but decorum is required," one of the guards told her, glancing at her red hair. Getting rid of the hats had seemed a satisfying piece of rebellion against the stultifying rules but she now stood out, which was far from perfect when trying to avoid capture. She hoped entering a room with an exit to a thousand meter drop was not a worse mistake.

Within the walls were white with a black door on the far side of the asymmetrical oval room. It was large, although the paleness of the surfaces exaggerated it, and contained thirteen men and one mech. There were seats and a table with refreshments, as though it was a social gathering. The pieces of fruit and vegetables stood oddly bright against the white table. Two of those present were dressed in black and Emma recognised one as being the man suggesting sentences at the judging earlier.

Apart from Torus and Obix, all were old and Emma suspected they were the Knights of Liberty leadership, although Rawlinson was not present.

"What is wrong with you?" Torus was demanding and Emma suspected his tirade had prompted the guard's comment to her as she entered. "You are just going to sit there until the order comes to jump? Well, fuck that. I'm not going to be killed for being in the wrong place. Better to die fighting, you cowards."

"Enough of that or I shall have to order you to leave now," the man in black from the judging said quietly.

"He's right," Emma said and the room turned to look at her in surprise. "They have invaded and sentenced you to death. Strike back at them."

The same man in black made to move to her but one of the condemned men stood and waved him back.

"Do you doubt they would destroy the supports to the city?" the man asked. Like most of the inhabitants, he was tall and lean. White hair was neatly combed and extended down in long side burns around a lined but peaceful face as though rarely stirred to anger.

"No," Emma admitted, "but you can escape to keep the idea of your nation alive."

"You are an outsider," he responded. "You do not understand our way of life. Duty and order are anathema to you."

"You are outsiders as well, now. If you allow yourselves to be slaughtered, the Knights of Liberty will be over. There will only be the Eternal Mandate and how they want your people to live," Emma argued, her voice rising with frustration.

"To run is to subvert the ideals of the Knights of Liberty," another explained. "How can anyone hold true to the notion of duty and resilience in adversity if we scurry away like kol-rats? No: if you truly wish to help, let people know we died with dignity."

Many nodded at the sentiment, although a couple of them appeared less certain.

Emma wanted to argue further against the counter-productive sacrifice but the Eternal Mandate was hunting for her and the other pirates, while Chloe or Stokes could decide to see if she needed rescuing. The captain might have been able to persuade the Knights' leaders but they seemed set on taking a contrary position to what she said.

"Obix, do you understand what is happening here?" she asked.

"The Eternal Mandate has declared all those present as enemies and intend to execute us," Obix replied with equanimity to rival those Knights present.

"So why are you not trying to preserve life?" Emma queried.

"The Eternal Mandate has not attempted to kill anyone," Obix explained. "What people say and even their intentions can be significantly different to their actions."

"We need you back," Emma told him. "Osira needs you to come with us to help us escape without being killed. The guards will not let me, Torus or you leave, however, so you will need to subdue them."

She wondered if Obix would object to leaving the condemned people but he inclined his head in acceptance.

"If I may, however, Mistress, we can climb onto the roof," Obix stated, "thereby avoiding potential injury to you or the guards while reducing the likelihood of the alarm being raised."

Emma looked at the ceiling, which was solid, but then realised what the mech meant. It took Torus a moment longer, then he swore vehemently, causing the Knights to stare at him with disapproval.

"Calm yourself," one ordered.

"I would rather go out the front," Emma admitted but it did increase the chance for something to go wrong. The guards would try to stop them and Obix would counter while trying to avoid hurting them. If anyone saw what was happening, the Eternal Mandate and their Knight subordinates would come running.

"Do it," she instructed, already feeling a constriction in her chest from the apprehension.

Obix opened the black door to the sky. Wind howled in as Emma stared at the oblong of dark clouds that filled the view. There seemed to be no connection to the ground at all. Torus went silent.

"It is perfectly safe," Obix stated and Emma felt like laughing hysterically. The mech moved to the doorway and stood as though there was not a drop that would smash him into pieces. It was as far as his reassurance went and Emma walked to him with funereal slowness.

"Good luck," one of the Knights of Liberty said earnestly. Neither of the two attendees in black made any attempt to stop them and Emma almost wished they would.

Halting close enough to see the inhuman brown pigmentation in his eyes, Emma nodded shakily and turned around. Obix held her waist, leaned back in a manner that would unbalance a human and lifted her up as easily as if she was made of cotton wool. Focusing on the edge of the roof, Emma scrambled up. Like the walls, it sloped, although only at a shallow gradient so a ball would roll off but she would not.

She kept her sight on facing toward the city and lay on the roof then crawled over to one side. A string of expletives from behind informed her Torus was up as well. Emma could see the heads of the two guards at the front but they were oblivious to their escape.

Far enough back from the drop, Emma risked looking back. Obix had climbed up as well while Torus was crawling towards Emma, flashing her a grin that looked more scared than confident. They were so far up that the ground was a hazy dark yellow with few details discernible and the uneven clouds above stretching in all directions without interruption. Over the city were condensation collectors raised high enough to touch the clouds when they were lower.

"Quite the view," Torus managed, although his voice trembled.

"It is," Emma agreed.

Torus stood up and held his hands out, then tried to spit over the edge but the wind took it off to the side. He turned and shrugged, grinning. Emma shook her head then Obix helped lower her to the ground as Stokes strode across to join them. She could not decide if he felt walking in the open was the best way of not drawing attention or could not conceive of being stealthy.

He glanced at Obix helping Torus down and settled on addressing her with visible reluctance.

"Report," Stokes ordered and Emma felt like telling him to jump off the edge.

"Most of those who seem to be your leaders are within," she said instead. "They are determined to be herded to their deaths like…" _What was that animal Chloe-mom referred to?_ "Lemmings." Of course, that perplexed him as he had less idea what one was than she did. "They might listen to you."

Stokes looked at the uneven oval building.

"No, they have made their choice and I respect it, even if I do not agree with it," he said quietly, then looked at her as though she had tricked him into speaking introspectively and led them back towards the others.

Max did not look good, with dried blood marking her dress and half-cleared from her pale face but smiled on seeing her. Chloe went to Obix and confessed to maiming Macula, although the mech was impassive making it difficult to know what he made of the admission.

"Now we have your people, it is time to get mine," Stokes announced and strode off, giving them little choice but to follow. Emma explained to Chloe what was going to happen to the men in the Expulsion Room.

"I know it's not why you did it, Chloe-mom, but you did not shoot the hand of an innocent. The Eternal Mandate are clearing the Knights' leadership out," Emma concluded and Chloe touched her arm affectionately.

"I wanted to be better than the waste-runner gangs," Chloe told her. "It's done though. I cannot un-do it." Chloe glanced at Max with a wry smile and Emma again wondered at the power to correct mistakes.

FIFTEEN

Osira had access to the main network but it was like being able to check messages and sites with them all belonging to an enemy who would track her down if she was noticed. She had managed to highlight where other circlet wearers were, which gave some warning for patrols but they still had to proceed with caution. Obix was back with her, a comforting presence by Osira's side.

There were so many messages and conversations being sent via the circlets but she could not crack into them. Hours spent learning the system and now she had been shut out of it by the encryption the Mandate was using. Wherever the mercenaries had come from, they had not known how to use the equipment beyond the most rudimentary levels. The Eternal Mandate were far more adept and Osira lacked the skill to break into the more secure areas. She was catching messages that the trusted Knights of Liberty were receiving, including watching for the people from the Grand Fault Order and assurances that little would change but was unable to intercept those restricted to only the Eternal Mandate's people.

"We are coming to the married areas," Stokes declared. "Although mixed groups are more common in this area, there is the same requirement for decorum and, possibly, a higher chance of being noticed."

"No streaking, got it," Chloe said. If quieter than normal, Osira was relieved to hear her making quips again. When Chloe had fired and destroyed Macula's hand, it had been shocking and the image of the splintered pale bone among the bright red blood stuck with her. Yet they needed Chloe to be pushing back against Stoke's attempts to run everything for his purposes. Osira wished she could be as defiant with the captain but lacked Chloe's indifference to his anger, either from age, personality or being semi-enlisted and accustomed to taking orders.

"A patrol is coming," Obix warned and Stokes looked at him then the others as though suspecting them of magic. It was his only hesitation in going into the entrance of a building. Unlike the one they had previously hidden in, there were sounds of talking and even a baby crying, although muted by the walls. After seeing only adults, hearing an infant felt strange but it was hardly the time for querying how children were raised.

"They will be Knight infantry but one has a circlet," Osira told Stokes, interpreting the display, which showed the layout of the city and where other circlet users were, with colour-coding to indicate whether they were Mandate or Liberty troops wearing them.

Stokes simply nodded but the corners of his eyes tightened. She suspected the idea of not being able to trust his own people did not sit well with him.

"Wait here," he ordered as soon as Osira told him the patrol was past. Stokes left immediately, giving no chance for objections or questions.

Osira took apart the side panel of the rail rifle she had been carrying and disconnected the microchip within. It allowed the weapon to be restricted to being firing only by those with a circlet, those with a rad suit or even to only a specific genetic imprint. With the chip removed it would fire for anyone and she passed the rifle to Emma, who raised her eyebrows but accepted it. Chloe had been shaken by using the rail pistol, Max looked to have passed out as soon as they stopped, she doubted Torus knew his own allegiance at this point and Obix would not use the weapon on humans. Stokes had the pistol from the interrogation room and Osira could not trust herself to actually kill someone if it came to it, with her abilities lying elsewhere. That left Emma.

"I'll be back in a moment," Chloe declared, easing away from where Max was propped up against the wall.

"Separating further is a terrible idea," Osira objected.

"I agree," Chloe said, continuing to move to the door.

"Obix, go with her," Osira sighed and went back to monitoring the circlet.

Chloe had only been gone a couple of minutes when a woman carrying a toddler came down the stairs. She stopped and looked at them open-mouthed.

"Routine check, ma'am," Torus declared. The woman looked at him in alarm.

"We are not supposed to be here," Emma admitted. "Please, do not report us to the Eternal Mandate invaders."

The woman shook her head and hurried out but Osira had no idea what she intended. They hardly looked a trustworthy group, with Emma carrying two rail weapons, Torus with his uniform jacket undone while smiling in a way that completely missed being reassuring and Max covered in dried blood slumped against the wall.

A young couple came down almost as soon as the woman with the toddler had left. Their reaction was the same concerned incomprehension.

"Do you have some water, please?" Emma asked. She was crouched down beside Max.

"Who are you?" demanded the man.

"True allies of the Knights of Liberty," Emma answered. "The Eternal Mandate are hunting us down for knowing how treacherous they are."

"We are now Eternal Mandate," the man responded but without conviction.

"Then, please, just help neighbours in need," Emma appealed. The woman whispered something to her companion and then went upstairs.

Osira had never seen a telephone or similar communication device in the city and hoped the woman was fetching water, not calling for security. Emma was clearly trying to get them on their side or at least neutral by requesting help.

"The Knights of Liberty are now vassals of the Eternal Mandate," the man stated, not moving from the stairs. "You cannot be allied to one and enemy to the other."

"Unless the Knights were forced into being the Mandate's lackeys," Emma told him. "There is a core of resistance, true to the ideals of the Knights and not their oppressors."

Osira thought how it was a line Chloe would have tried and smiled. As she was becoming hopeful the man would not try to report their presence, the door to the outside opened and a pair of uniformed figures entered.

With the light behind, it took until they moved into the lobby properly to see it was Chloe followed by Obix. She was even wearing a cap, although the clothing was slightly baggy and long for her with it tucked into belt and boots.

"Hey, what's up?" Chloe greeted the man still stood on the stairs.

"This hardly seems the time to change clothes," Osira commented and Chloe looked across from where she was knelt beside Max.

"If I have to run or climb over walls or whatever, I want to be able to do so. Also, it might help confuse people who are looking for a group whose composition is known and brilliant white isn't best for hiding. And, yes, I just don't want to wear that stupid Princess Leia dress any longer. Now, I need a room to help Max change into a clean dress."

"The Robinsons are out," the man on the stairs indicated the nearest apartment. He only moved from the steps once his wife returned with a beaker of water and took it in to the room Chloe and Max had entered.

"You should go before someone comes," he added, addressing Obix and frowning but now standing among them in the lobby.

"Soon," Emma promised as Osira went back to watching the various icons indicating troops and managed to get the Eternal Mandate's androids to show. There were only nineteen of the robots, which was fewer than seemed necessary to cow the city and tried to find an option to show more.

Captain Stokes returned almost as soon as Osira started and she glanced at the family accompanying him. There were three healthy children - two boys and a younger, wide-eyed daughter - preceded by a woman no more than Osira's height with mid-brown hair and full, round features. The wife was wearing a standard white dress, although it was so clean as to seem luminous and the green stripe along the hem and sleeves stood out proudly, a matching brimmed hat completed the look, while the daughter had a pale pink dress and the sons wore miniature pale blue uniforms. Even with small bags of belongings, they looked cute, like they could be on a poster for a Knights of Liberty family on a picnic.

"Where is…?" Stokes began but then Chloe, Max and the woman from the apartment came out of the side room. Caulfield had been put into a clean white dress, perhaps because there would be no uniforms that would come close to fitting her, although an olive green military jacket with black flashes was draped over her shoulders.

"It is an affront for you to wear the uniform of a Knight of Liberty," the captain told Chloe, his cheeks again going red to the point where Osira wondered how he had avoided a cardiac arrest.

"I'm not," Chloe responded. "I'm wearing the uniform of an Eternal Mandate minion."

Predictably, that hardly eased his fury but, to Osira's surprise, he seemed to concede that point.

"A thief, none-the-less," he glowered but continued swiftly to avoid an argument while getting the last retort in. "My wife: Mrs. Daphne Stokes, my eldest: Jordan, my middle child: Harold, and my youngest: Dahlia."

He ran through the pirates names with such dismissive speed that Osira wondered if his family caught any of them. Jordan was fifteen or sixteen, as tall as his father and looked at Emma with distinct interest, despite the age difference, uncertain curiosity towards Torus, amusement at Chloe and indifference to the others, although his gaze did linger on Osira too as he inclined his head. Harold was two or three years younger, about the same height as Osira and seemed bewildered by what was happening, glancing at his mother for reassurance. Dahlia was probably the same age gap, on the brink of her teens at most, but looked at them all with interest, staring at Emma's hair as much as Chloe's. Daphne, despite a chest and hips expanded by child-bearing, had a slim waist and stood very erect, adding to her aura of disapproval.

"So, Stokesy, what's the plan," Chloe asked and Osira was glad the woman was more herself but wished she would stop provoking the captain, who was their best hope of escaping. "I take it abseiling over the side isn't an option?"

"I do not know what that is," Stokes replied, clearly annoyed. "We are going to take the stairs."

"You don't mean…" Chloe began then swore softly. Dahlia giggled, Harold looked shocked and Jordan smirked, while both parents were obviously further angered. The captain glanced at his wife, as though to indicate he had warned her.

Stokes then spoke to the man from the apartment while his wife talked to her counterpart before heading to the door. Osira found the idea of having a family along while trying to avoid killer robots and their masters less than ideal but the captain seemed to know how to get them out of the city.

Then it was more careful hurrying through the city. They now made a significant group and Osira told Obix to ensure no-one became separated. The fact that all the men in the city wore uniforms made it difficult to tell if they were security watching for them or had other jobs. The circlet only showed those wearing copies of it and the androids, which helped but still left them checking round corners before rapidly crossing intersections. Max looked better but was still almost being carried by Chloe, while Emma would frequently check back with them.

Stokes had the pistol taken from the interrogation room and Emma was carrying the rail rifle from the wrecked android plus another pistol but it was little to take on half of the city. The captain had ordered Emma to give the rifle to Obix, which she had ignored, but had not mentioned Torus, making Osira consider Stokes must know their companion came from Joddrel Town or a similar area beyond the Knights' territory.

For all their caution, the group ran into a squad of Knights close to the elevators. The circlet indicated many of the Eternal Mandate people were in the area and Osira was surprised at the effort they were spending to catch them. The pirates had learned the Eternal Mandates' strategy and would not want that to be known but it indicated that the Grand Fault Order was likely next. None of troopers did not have circlets, which had prevented her detecting them. She looked at Obix, who looked apologetic but even his audio capabilities would struggle to detect one squad when there were many other noises, including with their own group being so expanded.

The troopers strode up from two blocks away and saluted Stokes. Osira looked at Max but the woman still appeared wan and weak. She felt guilty for thinking of her as a battery, currently too drained to rewind them out of the current situation but, then, if Max had done so, she would never have known the encounter had taken place. It was not a good idea to rely on the logic-defying ability.

"Sorry, sir, but we have orders for your arrest," the squad leader announced. "Please come with us."

"They are orders from the Eternal Mandate and they are our conquerors," Stokes stated. "They are to be ignored."

Some of the troopers looked uncertain but the leader, with a set of stripes on his arm, was not persuaded.

"I have orders, sir. Please come with us."

The squad had rail rifles but were yet to point them.

"You should be resisting the Eternal Mandate, not collaborating with them," Stokes declared, his cheeks heating again.

"My orders are from Major Hodkin, sir. We do not want to use force, especially in front of the women and children but we are taking you in," the man said. His grip on the rifle tightened and the others looked to be preparing to commit to an onerous task.

"Obix, disarm them," Osira whispered.

"You are bloody traitors!" Stokes snapped but Obix glided past him, barely catching the attention of the troopers before moving so rapidly he was hard even for Osira to track. In a handful of seconds, Obix was holding five rail rifles and their previous users were looking stunned. Many of those with the _Pirates_ appeared no less surprised, from Stokes staring at the mech to his wife putting herself between Obix and her children, although Jordan declared with awe: "that was incredible!"

"What _are_ you?" Torus wondered as Obix turned to Osira.

"We should continue," Osira commented. "Hopefully, these troopers will not detain us longer."

Now unarmed and unsettled by Obix's superhuman speed, the soldiers back out of their way.

"That was good work, Mr. Obix," Stokes declared but was evidently no less disturbed by how fast the mech had moved.

"Thank you, Master," Obix acknowledged while carry the rifles. He turned to Osira as they walked.

"Does anyone want a gun?" Osira queried but quickly realised just offering them was perhaps not the best idea.

"I need one," Torus announced as Jordan was requesting his father's permission.

"Treat it like a toy even for a moment and I will take it off you," Stokes told his son. "I have seen what they can do to a person."

"I will be responsible, sir," Jordan replied but could not keep the smile from his face. Obix gave a rifle to the boy and to Torus, who was barely older but had at least been in a firefight, albeit a very one-sided. Osira told Obix to keep the rest as Emma was already armed and none of the other pirates wanted one of the weapons. She considered taking one but felt that pulling the trigger became an easy answer to any situation. It was hardly better to put them in the hands of two people who were barely beyond childhood, she sighed to herself, but rapidly removed the control chips from weapons.

Stokes stored the two spare ones in a small maintenance shed then continued on his way. Twice more they had to dodge into other residences and Osira was grateful for the Knights' society being so trusting as to not lock most buildings. The troopers would have alerted others to the group being close and armed but the captain took them away from the elevators to a different building some distance away.

From within there was humming and rattling noises, which became significantly louder as Stokes opened a door. Osira could not tell if he had known there would be no troops present but he marched in ahead of the others as Jordan held the door for the rest, rail rifle resting casually on his shoulder. The construction housed massive machinery, including pistons three times her height steadily bobbing up and down. For a moment, she could only stare.

"Big bastards, aren't they?" Chloe commented as she edged past with Max. The smell of oil and grease filled the air, making Osira wonder how the Knights obtained enough to keep the machinery lubricated.

"What is powering them?" Osira managed but there was no reply, in part because Stokes had already marched off down the line of creaking pistons.

"I guess this is how they generate their leccy," Chloe said as Osira caught up to them, with Obix being the only one to wait while she gawped.

"It was only a day since we thought they were far in advance of the Order," Osira nodded, having to be heard over the clanking pistons. The machines were much larger compared with anything in the Order and were no less impressive for being less efficient in energy generation. Scores of workers surrounded the machines with leather overalls covering their uniforms but those nearby saluted Stokes. Many stared at the disparate group. One man, slightly older came forward and spoke to the captain but deferentially, mostly just nodding his head in compliance.

A raised office overlooked everything with another worker perched on a ladder cleaning the glass. If such a power station existed in the Order, there would be perhaps one human overseer - likely playing games on a virtual reality headset - and all other tasks completed by mechs. There would be no need for the slogans on posters: Sun City needs your Service; Your Work Matters; Keep Clean - Keep Safe, in addition to the more generic ones. To be fair, the workers did not seem unhappy and many tapped forage caps towards the group by way of curtesy. In Troy City, they would be more likely to try to pick her pockets.

Not that the white dress she wore had any.

She studied the mind's eye display, aware of Obix protectively close. It showed the androids and Eternal Mandate troops moving around but still concentrating near the elevators.

"I like Sun City," the mech declared.

Osira nodded absently, aware that Obix would like the ordered society and lack of rival mechs. There was much that could be improved in the Knights of Liberty's society but she had a feeling the Eternal Mandate were going to make everything worse.

Stokes led them to a circular stairway down, going first. There were dumb waiter lifts for cargo and Osira wondered how long it would take to bring one up from the ground floor. A man was speaking into a voice funnel, shouting for 10 centimetre bolts to be sent up. He looked at them in surprise but touched his cap on seeing the women.

The next room down had another score of people, all working on electrical goods, hand-building parts at benches in an assembly line that ran round much of the room. The usual surprise at seeing them and the equivalent of a foreman coming across followed by Stokes talking to him. Osira edged close enough to listen to the captain explain that the Eternal Mandate had tricked them and to stay true to the Knights, ready to rise up against their conquerors. She suspected Stokes was starting to hone his speech.

"These are the infertiles, I guess," Chloe muttered quietly, still with her arm around Max's waist. "Put on the lower levels, out of sight."

"Perhaps," Osira shrugged, "but the conditions do not seem too onerous." If hardly singing and smiling, the assembly workers were not bowed and carried out their tasks without rushing. A few were talking across to each other, while another stretched and several stopped to gawk at the strange group who had entered their domain. With far fewer particles to scratch them due to being so far from ground level, the surrounding large glass windows were mostly unmarked, giving an incredible view of the land in almost all directions.

Osira stared out, noting rad-domes, tiny settlements and a few specks of green. She turned her attention to the electronics being assembled for televisions and refrigerators but it was alien compared with the Order's technology. Osira began asking questions about what the components did but Chloe whistled to show Stokes was already at the stairs, heading down again.

More levels with more manufacturing, from furniture to typewriters and even one which grew edible plants with mirrors catching light from the windows and reflecting it to the vegetation. They walked between large raised boxes held different vegetables like over-sized greenhouses.

"What are we going to do about food?" Chloe asked, pretending not to have taken a handful of pea pods.

"We must escape first," Stokes declared.

"That's not going to work," Chloe sighed, looking to the other pirates for support.

"Chloe Price is correct," Osira stated. "We will not get far without supplies."

"I will take care of it," Stokes snapped and Chloe made a sign for masturbating behind his back before distributing the vegetables she had stolen. Osira popped a pod and ate the peas as they continued following Stokes down through a level where glass was being blown. She started perspiring in the heat, despite opened windows allowing wind to pass through but discovered the centre of the ancient skyscraper had a thermal vent coming from far below ground. What she had taken for just another internal support strut was a funnel for heat that then drove the city's turbines. Chloe was as fascinated as she was by the energy source but Stokes was again moving on.

Below the glass room was one melting metal ores and she warned everyone that the radiation levels were high. A rad counter had been implanted in her arm when she was thirteen but was becoming temperamental, ideally requiring replacing. However, it functioned well enough to indicate some of the ores being smelted were giving off gamma radiation reaching close to 50 milisilverts per second. The workers did not look at all healthy but touched their caps as the group passed.

"You have to put a stop to this," she told Stokes. "The radiation levels are lethal."

"Even if that were true, our goal is to escape, not improve the safety of workers whose loyalty is unknown," he said, staring down at her.

Chloe warned the floor's supervisor but he looked at her like she was an apparition.

"You are wearing a protector's uniform," the man said, as though Chloe was beyond his comprehension.

"Because my clothes are more important than stopping your people from getting radiation," Chloe exclaimed, flapping her arms.

"They are correct," Obix added. "Radiation in this area is high and some of the ore is deadly."

"You have to have noticed the illnesses and death toll?" Osira tried. Stokes had shown scepticism but was hurrying his family down to the next floor.

"There are monthly checks," the supervisor declared. "It is safe." However, he looked uncertain. All those present were young and Osira suspected no-one survived the smelting area long.

"Mistress, you and the others must leave," Obix fretted.

"Do an independent one with proper equipment," Osira told the supervisor. "We have to go. In fact, I dare not stay longer. Check if you have to but this is lethal even over a moderate time." A head-up display from the chip - confusing with the mind's eye display from the circlet and her normal vision - showed several red points in the room.

"They're already dead," Chloe spat as they descended to a floor with ore sorting. She turned to look up at Osira.

"Keep moving," she said heavily. The next floors showed lower but still unsafe radiation levels and they hurried through. Stokes hesitated then joined them without stopping to speak with the level's ore-dust covered supervisor.

The display from the silver circlet showed the Eternal Mandate and their androids were moving.

"The E-Ms are coming," she warned. "Obix, you have to shoot their androids if they find us."

"Yes, Mistress," he acknowledged, making Osira again wonder at his soft-int. Of course, it was not like shooting humans or even other mechs but he seemed to have no qualms about doing so. Being a mech, he could have resolved in seconds any internal reluctance that would have taken a human hours of soul-searching.

More floors, thankfully uncontaminated, with people working, including more growing food via reflected sunlight.

Next were residential rooms, each floor divided into apartments. Music played somewhere and a cluster of people broke off from chatting to stare at them. A mixture of electric lights and mirrors illuminated the corridors between the partitions but Osira had little desire to stay in the area. It was more menacing than among the apartment blocks on the top levels.

"Hey, guys, what's up?" Chloe waved to the group watching them. They made no response and Stokes had soon led them down to the next level. Stokes and his family seemed as bewildered by the inhabitants and their homes as the _Pirates_ were.

"The Eternal Mandate are closing," Osira warned. "We need to hide."

"How many?" Chloe asked.

"Six robots and three people," Osira replied. "We cannot win a fight and they will be on us in ten minutes or less."

Passed the strange homes that appeared to not be officially part of the Knights of Liberty, the windows were more scoured by sand particles and they came to one floor that was completely darkened for growing fungi.

"A mushroom room," Chloe observed, while a pair of pale-skinned farmers gaped at the group open-mouthed. Osira noted the surprise at seeing intruders was increasing as they went down the levels.

They hurried past a waste-treatment plant that was used to fertilize the crops and Osira guessed Sun City had been almost a closed system until recently. Very little would have been needed from the ground.

"Five minutes," she warned. "They are already passing through the last of the residential areas."

"We will have to fight," Stokes declared as they reached a level that had collapsed. The stairwell was intact but half the floor was missing and had been for years.

"I guess we know how some of those partition-homes were built," Chloe observed, causing Osira to realise the level had been cannibalized rather than collapsing. The floor below had only rubbish piled up but it seemed that anything remotely useful had gone.

"Ladies, that includes you, Price, go on," Stokes ordered. "Obix, Torus and I will hold them here for as long as possible."

"I will stay also," Jordan announced determinedly. The captain nodded but Osira was surprised his wife also appeared to support the idea of her eldest staying to almost certainly die.

"Don't be so determined to do a last stand," Chloe sighed. "It's hardly a great idea but the E-Ms can't be tracking us that well, especially if Oz takes the one ring off her head." Osira snatched the circlet off, wondering if the Eternal Mandate had been following it just as she had been watching them.

"Max and I have a plan but it's not a good one," Chloe said. "We get across to one of the other sky scraper supports. We just need a very long plank or rope with grappling hook or… something."

"That's a terrible idea," Osira objected then looked up as she heard the heavy clatter of robotic feet on the stairwell.

"I have seen Obix fight," Chloe said. "Those E-M murder-bots will slaughter anyone fighting them. Keep moving and look out for something to get us across."

"There are cables between the towers," Obix stated. "They would suffice. There is a steel one two floors down."

"Why...?" Osira began but then shook her head. The reason for the cable was unimportant.

"Let us make haste, then," Stokes declared, sounding almost disappointed at not being able to die in a glorious fight against his enemy.

The floor with the cables had more workers in some form of distribution centre and several had deformities or missing limbs. Osira had seen enough to know the Eternal Mandate was the greater threat but the Knights of Liberty were hardly paragons of inclusion. From a dispassionate perspective, they were fascinating as cultures different to the Grand Fault Order.

Various goods grown or manufactured were sorted and put onto the dumb waiters or transferred across on cables to the other towers.

"Convenient," Max smiled.

"Okay, so I looked out a window earlier and saw what was happening," Chloe admitted. "We just need to get across before the E-Ms capture us.

"Stokesy, they will listen to you. Explain what we are doing and not to tell the pursuers where we've gone," Chloe said and clearly enjoyed irritating him. "I'll go first to check it's safe."

"How many do you think one of those carts will hold?" Max asked. "I should go with you in case there's a problem."

"It should take us two okay," Chloe said, looking up at the ceiling where the rattle of metal feet on concrete steps sounded. "Obe, give me one of the rifles," she added, steeling herself as though the weapon would bite her.

Chloe and Max climbed into a cart barely two meters by one made of thin metal and painted black. With Max in front and leaning back against her, Chloe - in the oversized green Knights of Liberty uniform - nodded to the perplexed workers who pulled on the cable. Despite the danger, Chloe grinned and raised her hands in the air as the fragile cart exited by a gap in the wall, laughing as the cables sagged with their weight. Osira shook her head.

"Obix, can you delay them? Shoot one in the leg then retreat," Osira directed.

"Of course, Mistress," he acknowledged.

"Do not expose yourself to danger," she instructed. "We need you intact more than the Eternal Mandate force slowed."

"Of course, Mistress," he repeated.

"I will go as well," Stokes declared, which Osira thought was a bad idea but arguing would be futile. "Daphne, put the youngest on once you are sure it is safe on the other pillar." The pulley system had two almost identical carts so as one reached the far side another was coming through another hole in the external wall. It all seemed very basic. And unsafe.

The workers appeared to accept whatever the captain had told them and Osira peered out the 'exit' hole, the wind notable against her skin. Her embedded radiation counter showed it was safe and she leaned out.

_Oh, that is still a long drop,_ she thought and felt her head swim. The ground was much closer than when they had started but remained a disconcertingly long way. She grabbed the edge of the hole and looked across to the next pillar. There were many of the old sky scrapers supporting the city, at least twenty, and some had their windows filled in but the majority looked as though they had occupants making Osira wonder if there were more people living in the bizarre undercity than on the platform above.

Chloe appeared, grin clear across the gap, and gave two thumbs up.

Harold and Dahlia were put into the next cart, both clearly scared and the daughter trying to hold onto her mother.

"Please, come with us," Harold tried as Dahlia was crying something incoherent.

"Don't be childish," Daphne said but without harshness. "The cart will not hold three. Stop showing your father and I up in front of the outlanders and do as you are told."

"You could take one of us across then come back…" Harold suggested and his mother's face hardened, turning to the workers and nodding. They hauled on the cable with thick leather-gloves and the cart moved out into space, the two children clinging to each other.

A rail gun shot sounded above, followed by several more.

"Hurry," Daphne Stokes urged the men pulling on the cables but did not go to the hole in the wall to watch, either from not wanting to show weakness or from avoiding her children rocking the cart if they saw her. Harold and Dahlia were huddled down holding each other with neither coming close to looking over the side, which was just as well.

The firing from above stopped. Her monitor told her Obix was damaged and she was tempted to put the circlet back on to see where the androids were. Without a better understanding of how it networked with the other ones, however, it was not worth the risk.

Chloe appeared over at the other side, another thumbs up and then Osira realised it was her turn. She had thought Daphne and Jordan would be next but the eldest son apparently counted as an adult now. The notion that Osira should go because she was a woman seemed ridiculous but arguing would be counterproductive. She climbed in, Daphne sitting just behind her, and the cart lurched forward. Osira slipped the circlet through her arm then griped the thin, fragile sides. Once over the lip, the cart sagged down and, for a moment, she was certain the cable had snapped but it quickly levelled out.

When she had seen Chloe go across the ride had seem quick and smooth with the blue-haired woman peering about and staring at the buildings, one arm hugging Max to her but the other waving in the air. At one point, she had even looked over the side of the cart but that had clearly been too much even for her and Chloe had settled down. Actually being in the cart, suspended hundreds of meters off the ground by a well-used cable and buffeted by winds revealed just how turbulent the ride was. The workers were clearly used to the job, it was probably what the only thing they had done since leaving childhood, but human manpower pulling the cables meant it was uneven, with a rocking motion as they pulled then paused to grab the cable further along.

Osira felt her heart was in her mouth and barely able to breath. Her hold on the sides felt as though it should crush the thin metal. Keeping her eyes firmly on the building in front, she was approaching it at a terribly slow rate while the cart rocked and swung. The wind felt more like a hurricane blowing against her hair as she crouched down and it was pushing their frail conveyance to the side until she worried it would become horizontal and tip them out to fall for the best part of half a minute before slamming into the ground.

"Isn't that a blast?" Chloe was grinning at her as she helped Osira out of the cart. "Why don't they have that as a permanent ride?"

Osira could barely stand she was trembling so much.

She slowed her breathing with difficulty and the sensation of wanting to vomit passed. Daphne Stokes went to comfort her children but Osira thought she looked just as shaky. Jordan and Dahlia ran and hugged their mother. Osira barely registered the cluster of workers with calloused hands at this side, helping to pull the ropes that looped round a central pillar identical to that in the other tower. At the opposite side of the room another pulley system took carts to the next former-skyscraper along but the workers had all stopped to observe the unusual change to their routine.

"Now, now, don't be silly," Daphne said but made no move to disentangle them from clutching her.

Osira went to the empty square in the wall where Chloe was already staring out with the rail rifle propped against the wall. She was making a motion as though to catch Emma, who was riding in the next cart.

"Were you not even a little scared?" Osira asked. Despite being ill-fitting and clashing with her blue hair, Osira thought the uniform suited Chloe more than the white dress had. In truth, she looked forward to wearing something less bland and characterless herself.

"Of course!" Chloe grinned at her. "My heart felt like it was going to burst!"

Osira stared at Chloe, who smiled back with blue eyes flashing. _How could anyone find that exhilarating?_

Emma and Torus were climbing out of the next cart before Osira had chance to look around at a room almost identical to the one they had left. Chloe did a fist bump with the former, including pulling her hand back and opening it like an explosion, which raised a smile from her daughter. Emma hand-brushed her hair from its wind-swept wildness and headed over to Max.

"That was nothing," the Steel Warrior shrugged. "I was once caught in a storm at Knife Box rocks and had to cling onto a buggy being lifted off the ground."

Osira thought he looked pale and unsteady.

"Then you can help me cover the space," Chloe said. Torus was holding a rail rifle and went to the other side of the pulley where the 'exit' carts left. Osira surreptitiously noted how relieved he looked.

The corner of her eye caught a flash and she looked back across the gap to see another flicker of light in the windows of the floor above the distribution centre, followed by a boom that they heard even across the wind-gusted gap. There was a pause in the carts, the pulley stopped and Osira peered out.

"Stay low," Chloe said, peering over the lip with the rail rifle now cradled in her hands.

"I'll start moving the Stokes family down," Osira suggested and Chloe nodded.

"Take Max and Emma too. Hopefully, the E-Ms won't know we're here," Chloe nodded. "We could cross to another spire but better if we don't."

Osira stared at her and opened her mouth to object but closed it without speaking. She saw Jordan Stokes at the far window and gesticulate, the wind reducing his shouting to snatches of words.

"What's he doing?" Chloe asked.

"The workers have gone," Torus deciphered.

"We'll have to pull from this side," Chloe nodded and gave a thumbs-up to Jordan Stokes. Several of the workers had come to stare and point at the dust and smoke coming out of the building opposite. Chloe directed them back to pulling on the cable while leaving Torus to watch across the space. The first cart to come across was empty but Chloe told her to start leading the others away.

Osira went to where the others were clustered, all standing and watching her approach around the pulley system and components for transporting. The far side of the room had another pulley to a further building and the group had gathered equidistant from the two systems.

"We're going to get a head start," Osira announced.

Daphne Stokes stood looking down her nose at Osira, with her children appearing apprehensive, but curtly nodded.

"At least we're heading downwards," Max commented and Osira watched her blow a kiss to Chloe.

SIXTEEN

Chloe caught Max's blown kiss and held it, then turned her attention to Emma, holding both hands to her chest. Then her family disappeared down the stairwell and the worry that she would not see them again resurfaced at the back of her mind. It was not paranoia when there were actual murder-bots and family-stealing vortices. She had to fight her instinct to constantly keep both Emma and Max in sight, instead returning to the hole in the side of the skyscraper. Torus had his rail rifle levelled across the gap.

_That was such a rush, crossing between the two buildings,_ she thought. _Max was less scared than I thought she would be, although she did lean against me pretty tight._

"Don't shoot unless you have to," she warned Torus. "We want to be across without them knowing and we should see our people first."

"This isn't my first firefight," Torus retorted, then rakishly smiled at her.

An empty cart was pulled across by the team of workers in their building and Chloe frowned. Osira would know if Obix had been injured but the two Stokes men were also still across somewhere. Another flash on the higher floor followed by several more and a window smashing apart, sending shards of glass twinkling down out of sight. Another empty cart before the next had both the captain and his eldest son, the former's uniform covered in dust and blood bright on his face. Jordan looked over the side then sat rapidly down again, his face white and gripping the cart as though he would never release his hold on it. His father, behind him, turned round to check back on the building they had left with concrete dust being blown off his clothing and hair. The cart arrived through the gap, Chloe helping the captain out then having to persuade Jordan out.

"Come on, you are across and safe. Hurry up out and join the rest of your family," she told him as she leaned in to fill his field of view. "Take a deep breath then my hand."

Jordan gave a shaky jerk of his head before grabbing her hand painfully tightly. He got out of the cart more by falling than climbing and Torus shook his head with contempt. The captain brushed his uniform and looked hardly less wild-eyed than his son.

"Obix: he's not human," Stokes said.

"We will cover here," Chloe responded. "Join the others."

"I will defend here," Stokes declared.

"With what?" Chloe asked and he looked around before realising he had left his rifle in the other building. Stokes took the rifle from his son.

"Sir!" Jordan objected.

"Join your mother and siblings," the captain ordered and Chloe momentarily thought Jordan would refuse but he gave an annoyed nod then left down the stairs.

"There's Obix," Torus announced and Chloe saw the mech in the far opening, damaged and dirty but he gave a stilted thumbs up.

"One more," Chloe told the workers, "then you can take the rest of the day off." She wanted to help pull but the rope cable would likely tear her hands in seconds and there seemed to be no spare gloves to hand. The workers, uniformed but with overalls, stared at her then Stokes but started pulling without further urging.

Obix was sitting in the cart with the same equanimity as though he was in the seat of the APC. If he felt any apprehension or excitement it did not show on his features as he phlegmatically sat cross-legged with the wind buffeting the cart. The conveyance came through the hole and the mech climbed out. He had a hole in his side and much of one arm was missing, leaking creamy-white fluid.

Torus, Stokes and the workers stared at him.

"Go home and have some fun," Chloe told the pulley operators. "No more work for today."

"You are dismissed," the captain told them. "Report as normal tomorrow."

That got them moving, of course.

"What? You don't speak 'female'?" Chloe grumbled, waving her hands as they left with increasing rapidity. She turned to Obix.

"You had best see Oz about getting patched up," she said.

"The nanobots are already working on re-routing systems around the damaged components," Obix said while sealing the leaking tubes simply by pressing the frayed ends together. "I should remain here until we are certain there is no pursuit, Mistress Chloe."

"What happened over there?" Chloe queried.

"I engaged the enemy machines as directed," Obix answered.

"And?" she pressed but Torus warned that the robots were coming across, barely a second before rail gun slugs began smashing through the walls and Chloe dived to the ground. She swore vociferously. Riding in a cart over a 300 yard drop was good-scary. Getting shot at was definitely bad-scary.

Obix took cover and returned fire.

"Cut the cable," Chloe ordered, seeing the pulley was moving at speed. Obix fired his rail rifle at the cable, the hyper-sonic slug of metal sheering through the wound rope. It parted and the line whipped round the room like a crazed snake before cracking past Torus as it went out the space in the wall. Even while knowing it was a stupid risk, she popped her head up to catch a glimpse of the cart falling with two androids calmly sat in it. Chloe ducked back as they brought their guns to bear even as the androids dropped to their destruction.

Chloe crawled to the stairs. Torus was firing blind out of the exit cable hole, Stokes further back behind some crates and Obix where the workers had stood at the 'U' bend of the pulley system.

"Come on!" Chloe shouted over slugs that went through one wall, any intervening cargo and out the far side before they were heard. "There's no point in staying."

She reached the stairs and almost fell down them as more slugs went overhead.

Obix joined her, shouldering his rail rifle.

"Any idea how many of them died?" she asked. Beyond satisfying her curiosity, there was comfort from knowing the E-M robots were beatable.

"I damaged three of their machines by shooting and two more fell with the cart," Obix informed her as he helped Chloe up with his remaining hand. "Presumably, that is why their shooting was so inaccurate."

"Inaccurate? They nearly took my head off," she objected as they headed downstairs but understood that had the robots been firing normally they would not have missed.

"Yes, the firing of the Eternal Mandate people was mediocre," Obix stated as Stokes and Torus joined them. The mech appeared relieved they were safe but Chloe noted he had stayed with her rather than the other two.

"Mediocre," Chloe repeated wryly. "You were shooting back at the humans, though."

"I ensured none were hit by my shots," Obix explained and Chloe wondered how he squared allowing Stokes and Torus to shoot with his need to preserve human life. Perhaps he had been confident their shooting would be mediocre as well.

"Does that…um, hurt?" Chloe asked, indicating the damage as they walked down the stairs through various small manufacturing areas. Captain Stokes seemed no longer inclined to stop and talk to the floor supervisors.

"Not as a human would experience," Obix replied, "but it is uncomfortable, Mistress Chloe. We are built to protect ourselves and part of that programming is discomfort when damaged. We thereby also have a limited understanding of damage being unpleasant for humans."

"It increases empathy," Chloe mused, glad of the chance to talk. Being shot at always left her shaky.

"It is a machine in human form," Stokes declared from a few steps above them. The narrow stairwell prevented him from leap-frogging past her to take the lead.

"Yes," Chloe acknowledged. From his tone, it sounded closer to: 'a demon in human form'.

"How many more of you are such falsehoods?" he asked as they went through a level with people bottling what looked like fruit juice.

"Just Torus," Chloe answered.

"I'm not!" the Joddrel Town boy exclaimed. "I'm human!"

"The Order got rid of all men and replaced them with machines. Predictably, it's working very well," Chloe commented. _Fuck, how many more stairs? If I'm going to get this exhausted, I'm going back to smoking._

"She's messing with you," Torus explained and she could hear his exasperation.

"Obviously," Stokes sighed then they caught up with the others. Osira rushed over to Obix, inspecting the damage and shaking her head.

"It took a round aimed at me," Stokes told her, evidently struggling with concepts far beyond what he was familiar with. His wife came across to look at his injuries as he bent over, Daphne using a bit of cloth to wipe away some of the dust and blood.

"We have to keep moving," Chloe stated, again wishing someone else would step up to chivvy them on. That way she could complain and ask for a rest.

"Carry me?" she asked Max, who smiled affectionately and took her arm as they continued down.

"How are you?" Max checked.

Her mind went to the image of Macula's hand, whole for a moment then instantly gone, replaced by a ragged stump with blood pumping from it. She could remember the thrum and faint kick of the rail pistol in her hand. Chloe firing had been prompted by seeing the android crushing Emma's fingers, her daughter screaming and Osira hammering ineffectively at the robot. Not just snapping them but permanently mutilating Emma's slim fingers in its grip as though they were sticks while Macula watched. Then it was undone and they had finally burst in before it started and without Stokes or her getting shot. _This is not who we are_. Yet Chloe's only regret was not killing Macula.

"I'm good," Chloe answered. "I'm almost getting used to being shot at."

"Chloe," Max said softly.

"Later," Chloe promised. Part of her wanted to shut away the memories and a bigger part wanted to nurse them: _see? This is the world. It will always hurt._ Yet with Max… with Max she could lance the pain.

Max looked at her dubiously: she always wanted to make things better even when it was not the right time.

Stokes was back in the lead, despite how battered he looked, but it gave Chloe chance to hang back with Max and Emma. They spoke little as Chloe's feet and calves began to ache from the unaccustomed exercise and soon even the types of room they passed through lost her interest. There was another residential area that felt even more threatening than the earlier one and more indoor farms, although the mirrors catching the light were often cracked, sometimes refracting the light and making Max stop, commenting that she longed for her camera. A group of scrawny, short locals eyed them with hostility. There were water containers to catch any rain as well as a faucet with a hosepipe attached.

Chloe was hungry; the banquet with Lord Salisbury felt like it was a week ago but she thought better of taking anything from the ragged plants struggling to grow in the dim light. With the other skyscraper pillars and the floor of Sun City, the levels were in semi-permanent twilight. Pale workers in rough spun clothing stared at them as they passed.

Just as Chloe was starting to think she had died and gone to some sadistic hell of forever going downstairs into ever gimmer zones, Stokes called a halt. She could almost read his mind as he frowned back at them: _I need to confer with them. The machine man? No. The Joddrel Town outcast? No. Who? If only there was someone I could speak with._

"Gather round," Stokes ordered. _Ah, decided against a conference and went with giving orders to his troops_, Chloe mused. It had barely registered but the floors had become less feral after the last bunch of farms. They had stopped at an administration centre with uniformed men at desks clacking away on typewriters and the captain made another effort to brush the dust off his clothing.

"We are four levels above the ground, now," he stated. "We have to assume the Eternal Mandate have people waiting for us so prepare to fight our way out. Mr. Obix, are you… prepared to continue to fight our enemies?"

"I am," Obix declared.

"You should understand that he will not harm humans," Osira stated and Stokes stared at her then the mech, who evidently felt his mistresses' statement was sufficient without requiring his confirmation.

"There are some old Dune-Skipper vehicles," Stokes declared. "Once we reach them, I will get a couple of them operational and we will make good our escape."

Chloe waited for an objection but it was going to fall on her, again. Emma looked back at Chloe, Osira just glanced at Stokes and shook her head and Torus was nodding while checking his rifle. Max was barely conscious.

"They know which building we are in and are either starting to search or just waiting for us to appear," she said. "There's nearly a dozen of us now. Wandering out like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid isn't a great plan. Let's get to some windows and check for bad guys. Oz, there are enough people around with circlets that you can probably risk putting yours back on. Finally, we need our vehicles, unless yours are heavily armoured. The E-Ms aren't going to let us go easily."

Osira had the circlet back on her head before Chloe had finished speaking. Hopefully the soft-int specialist could hack into the network. Osira had earlier tried to explain how it was completely different to what she knew but Chloe had zoned out as soon as she got technical. Without their APCs, however, it would be near impossible to escape. The int-soft specialist plugged a cable from Obix into her arm, causing Chloe to wonder what it was like to physically connect to the mech. Probably confusing if you did not know what you were doing.

"…and your vehicles are almost falling apart," Stokes was telling her. "Wait here with the women and we will be back with transportation."

"Funny," Chloe said flatly while Daphne Stokes was shocked and all his children were embarrassed.

"Corbin," his wife objected. "Apologise."

"She disrespects me at every opportunity," the captain stated, "is wearing a man's clothes, is in a relationship with…" He clenched his muscles and turned to Chloe.

"I apologise unreservedly for the insult. It was unbecoming of an officer of the Knights of Liberty," he ground out.

"Hey, we good, Stokesy," Chloe grinned. Max bumped her arm and she sighed. "Fine, whatevs. Sir, I humbly accept your apology. Shall we return to overcoming our common foes?"

"Yes," he said, evidently suspicious she was being sarcastic.

"Let's get a room," Chloe suggested and explained before Max told her off. "We can hide and use it as a temporary base."

Stokes seemed to be searching for reasons not to but workers on the floor were already taking note of the strange group and he gave a jerk of his head in agreement. He led them through, checking several rooms before coming to what appeared to be a conference room with a large table surrounded by leather-bound chairs. Even more than the Order, the shortage of synthetic materials had been countered with flora and fauna. Chloe sat down on one at the end and put her feet on the table, sighing at the pleasure of stopping for a moment. Her calves were throbbing and she felt as though there were blisters on her feet. Perhaps not the right time to remove her shoes to check though.

The captain, after a word with his wife, left with Jordan. Chloe wondered if one of the _pirates_ or Torus should go with him but it was probably safer if the two local to Sun City reconnoitred by themselves. Besides, given the way everyone else was taking seats, they were all ready for a rest. There was an exception and she watched Daphne Stokes approach at a determined rate.

"A word, if I may," she said.

"You may and today's word is 'absurd'," Chloe responded. A complete lack of amusement. Oh, well.

"You will stop attempting to humiliate my husband forthwith," Daphne ordered and Chloe sighed.

"But it's so easy," she declared and thought the woman might hit her.

"If you continue to provoke us, I will recommend to Mr. Stokes that we separate from your group," Daphne threatened. "Mocking him in front of our children is unacceptable."

"Fine, I get it, he can't take a joke," Chloe accepted. The way his wife put it, though, her riling of him was not very funny. "I'll try to ease up." The woman remained staring at her, disapproval on her features. Chloe raised her hands and widened her eyes by way of asking why she did not take her victory and go.

"And no swearing or otherwise trying to shock our children," Daphne insisted. "As ambassadors of your 'Order', you have done nothing but show contempt for your hosts."

"Perhaps," Chloe conceded, "but, in our defence, we haven't taken over your city and executed your leaders while you meekly accepted it."

"You are incorrigible," Daphne declared and turned on her heel.

"Mrs. Stokes," Chloe said as she was striding back to her children and the woman turned, perhaps expecting an apology. "If you could rustle up some food and water, that would help everyone."

Predictably, that just made her angrier.

Fortunately, Max was already asleep but she got plenty of disapproval from her daughter.

"Stop it, mom," Emma said and went into a spiel about needing the Stokes as allies as she sat in the chair next to her. The truth was, she agreed, but they were such easy targets that pulling the trigger and irritating them was irresistible.

"They need us more than we need them," Chloe objected weakly.

"So? What kind of excuse is that?" Emma retorted and Chloe nodded, feeling chastened and pinned by the disappointment in the pair of green eyes. "Since when did we pick on those in need?"

"We're not! I'm not! They're not," Chloe complained.

"Their city has fallen, their world turned upside down and their best hope is us," Emma observed. "Ease up on them."

Chloe nodded. So much about their society annoyed her and the captain's inflated ego needed pricking but Emma was correct. It was not her place to do it when they were trying to escape together. Emma rubbed Chloe's arm and smiled, having got through to her. Chloe swung her feet off the table and embraced her daughter.

"I love you, Emma," she said.

"Come on, don't get all sappy on me in front of the Stokes," Emma said softly in her ear. "I love you too, mom."

They broke apart and Chloe watched Daphne Stokes tell Harold and Dahlia to not worry while she was away. She wondered again how her daughter had not grown up to be a complete wreck instead of remarkably level-headed. She looked at Emma searching for the words to request what Chloe's needling of Captain Stokes had made awkward. Emma smiled and nodded without needing to be asked, going over to offer to watch Harold and Dahlia while their mother went for supplies.

At first, Daphne bristled and glanced to Chloe, who pretended to be studying the ceiling as she leaned back in the chair.

"Torus could accompany you," Emma offered. Chloe looked at the Steel Warrior slouching in a chair in a torn and dirty Knights of Liberty uniform with the jacket open, sleeves rolled up and the top two buttons of the paler linen shirt undone. As though on cue, he picked his nose then noticed people observing him and hurriedly wiped his hand on his trousers.

"What?" he queried.

"Or not," Emma sighed.

"It would be inappropriate for me to be unescorted," Daphne said. "Yes, I would be grateful if you would keep Harold and Dahlia safe." She then imperiously addressed Torus. "Sir, make yourself presentable. I need you to accompany me."

"Eh?" Torus asked, scratching the stubble of his hair and Daphne explained he had to smarten himself.

Chloe checked on Max, feeling her legs complain at moving again. Her love was fast asleep lying against the wall, recovering from the repeated rewinding of time. They had both been desperate to save Emma from the robot but Chloe had ached with wanting to save Max from the pain it was causing her. Accompanying her on the rewind gave Chloe a faint sense of what it did to the woman she loved and burned to take it all on herself instead.

"Rest, my love," Chloe whispered but stayed for a moment, crouched in front of Max. Her pale brown hair was longer than usual, the freckles like cinnamon powder on her cheeks and nose. If there were faint lines on her face, she seemed much less tense and fearful. For all that Max was now in an irradiated, chaotic world, she appeared more at peace than in their proper time period. Pale, tired but as hella cute as ever.

Reluctantly, Chloe rose and went to the window. _Ow. I really need to stop getting older._

Outside, much of the view was obscured by other skyscraper-supports but it was nice to be closer to the ground. She watched an E-M robot and its human counterpart march into view, with obscured sunlight glinting brightly off a circlet worn by the latter. Chloe watched the man and the machine continue their patrol until out of sight while considering Obix's battle against them. The mech had stopped five of them but taken a battering in the process and Chloe figured they could not rely on him being able to stop that many again, especially without the advantages of terrain and surprise.

"Any luck with the circlet, Oz?" she asked as the pair below her disappeared from view.

"No. Even with Obix's processing power, I cannot hack in to register as one of them," Osira replied without looking up from whatever she was seeing.

"So sign in as one of them. What was Macula's first name?" Chloe suggested.

"That won't work," Osira said impatiently. "Unless… If I can get behind the identification check then maybe there's a chance…" Her voice trailed off, lost in whatever data she was seeing. Chloe looked at Obix and gave him a thumbs up, which he returned with his one remaining hand. She had no idea what was involved in getting onto the E-M's network but Obix would be doing much of the number-crunching.

Chloe watched Emma playing with Harold and Dahlia for a while and considered joining them but would inevitably say or do something wrong that would get back to their mother. There were few pens available and had come across nothing suitable for drawing on the walls, leaving her at a loss with everyone else busy. Perhaps she could get away with wandering the corridors a little, searching for something useful.

Fortunately, Daphne and Torus returned before she could persuade herself it was a good idea. They had brought clay jugs of water and chunky sandwiches, which had Chloe halfway to them before deciding to wake Max.

"Hey, honey, there's food and water," Chloe said, gently touching Max's arm. Two sleepy grey-blue eyes and a smile greeted her in response.

There was too much danger here. Too much that could hurt Emma and Max. They needed to go.

Instead, they sat round the table eating and Chloe tried not to wolf everything down at once. She opened her mouth in a wide grin to Harold and Dahlia, causing both of them to giggle at the revealed, half-chewed food then turned round when their mother looked up to check what had caused their amusement.

"Oz, don't forget to eat," Chloe told the soft-int specialist. "I don't know what this paste is but it tastes alright."

"The Knights' do know how to bake bread," Emma commented.

"Being able to bake bread does kind of offset all their flaws," Chloe nodded, aware of Max smiling at them. "Hey, I can bake bread too."

"It's just grinding the grain you struggled with," Emma responded. "I can still remember picking wheat husks out of my teeth a day later," she told Max.

"And what was my solution?" Chloe asked.

"A windmill," Emma replied, directing the answer to Max.

"A _collapsible _windmill," Chloe amended and explained to Max how the wind could get so fierce it would tear normal boards off so they needed one easy to bring indoors. They still lost a couple but it was too useful not to replace and soon Cowl's Encampment had several to provide electricity to support that generated by the solar panels.

Emma chipped in about how they had once dashed outside in rad suits to take them apart as a gale was gaining only for the wind to drop suddenly and the sun come out.

"Chloe modified them for easier dismantling after that," Emma informed Max.

"_We_ modified them," Chloe corrected, recalling them both going over her drawings and bouncing ideas off each other. Some of it was her daughter reigning in Chloe's more ambitious ideas. Emma nodded, smiling at the memory. Chloe caught Max's wistful expression, that bittersweet look whenever they reminisced.

"I know, Maxi," Chloe acknowledged. "But we never had rides in carts over thousand-foot drops while chased by murder bots."

"Good times," Max smiled, "but just as well we don't have adventures like that anymore."

Captain Corbin Stokes and his eldest son returned, opening the door abruptly enough that Chloe reached for her rail rifle and Emma rose to her feet.

"There are patrols everywhere," the former announced without preamble, although seeing Osira hooked up to Obix caused him to pause and frown. "A couple of officers are helping but the E-Ms and Knights who have yet to understand where their loyalties should lie are searching for us. Major Sabb is going to get a Dune-Skipper and bring it here, pretending to be helping the search for us. We will wait here until he returns and then Jordan, Torus and I will bring more vehicles."

"There's a lot that can go wrong," Chloe commented but shrugged. Unless Osira could get into the network, she had nothing better. Stokes ignored her anyway.

More waiting and Chloe noted how the two groups sat at opposite ends of the room, the Stokes clustered together while the _pirates_ plus Torus were huddled furthest from the entrance. She felt trapped in the room, at the mercy of fate and others and it took all she had not to wander off exploring. As ever, Max helped just by being there and reminiscing about the past or speculating on who the Eternal Mandate were. Their experience with them to date had been less than promising.

There was a rap at the door that had Chloe again reaching for her rifle while hoping she would not have to use it. Max shrugged. Her time travel ability was confusing as all hell: Max's gesture was the only way of knowing it was not something she had already experienced and rewound. A man in one of the Knights of Liberty uniforms entered and was met by Captain Stokes, talking in hushed whispers.

"I am going to fetch more vehicles," the captain announced. "Most of the Dune-Skippers have not been used in years so we will be gone for some time."

"I know my way around engines," Chloe declared as the two military and Jordan Stokes prepared to leave.

The one who had to be Major Sabb looked at her in surprise and stared as though his mind was struggling to interpret what his eyes were seeing. Chloe gave her best insolent grin. He turned to Stokes, who narrowed his eyes then it was her turn to be surprised.

"Come with us, then," he directed, essentially calling her bluff and she could not back down, even though it meant leaving Emma and Max in the conference room.

Chloe hugged them both, telling them to stay safe, even while knowing she was being overly concerned and protective.

"Don't spend too long staring at that," Chloe told Osira, "you'll ruin your eyes. Obe, back in a few: don't let the E-Ms take everyone."

"Of course not, Mistress Chloe," Obix acknowledged while Osira was frowning at her.

She then followed the uniformed men out of the conference room, pausing to stick her tongue out and make her eyes wide at Harold and Dahlia before their mother noticed. She swiped a cap from someone's desk as they passed, scraping her hair up under it. Only at long range would she pass for a Knight of Liberty soldier but it might help. Fortunately, most troopers they met on the way down were more interested in staying out of the way of the officers than on who was accompanying them.

The short break and refreshments had helped revitalise her but the ache in her legs had barely faded. There was a jug of water which she considered stealing but it was too cumbersome to carry. She hoped Stokes and his buddy had supplies ready in addition to transportation. Chloe made a gesture for masturbation behind Stokes back, again: it didn't count if his family wasn't watching, right?

Torus dropped back to walk beside her as she had been bringing up the rear in the hope of reducing the chance to be noticed.

"This has been really weird, kind of good, maybe," he told her, "but you've mostly done right by me. I mean, not, like, as good as you could have but we're kind of in this together, right?"

"What? Sure," Chloe agreed, looking at him askance.

"And you're kind of alright. I mean, for someone older. You being with Max I didn't get but you seem… I don't know, kind of good together, even, you know, though you're both women," he said, whispering the last word. "You're, like, someone I could have a drink with despite being female. And your daughter is really, really hot, I just got to say. I mean, I don't know how you two, er, created her but she's smoking."

"If you're on for asking her out, she's her own woman: go for it," Chloe said but annoyed and eyeing him suspiciously.

"Out? Oh, you mean, a walk to the stone of attraction. She already shot me down," he told her, wistfully, which reinforced Chloe's respect for Emma's wisdom. If she sometimes wished her daughter would blow off steam more often, Torus was not the valve for doing it. "No," he was saying as they reached the ground floor, "we can go straight to Joddrel Town. I'll… what's that word for saying you're good?"

"Vouch."

"Right, yeah. You can hang out while this crap blows over," Torus explained.

"That's… that's actually a kind offer, Torus," Chloe acknowledged, "but we can't. I don't know much about the E-Ms but they don't seem like the sort to be satisfied with just Sun City. Joddrel Town won't be safe for long and our presence would just hasten the E-M's interest."

"You talk funny, too," Torus grinned, fidgeting with his buttoned up collar. Then, as Sabb told them to wait in a corridor that was busy enough for Chloe to keep her head down, Torus became contemplative.

"Why would they come to Joddrel?" he asked.

"The same reason they came here. To take shit that isn't theirs," Chloe replied, pushing the stolen cap lower on her head.

Major Sabb returned, hurrying down the corridor.

"Right, we are on. There's a Dune-Skipper just out the front door," he declared. "There are those devil-machines of the Eternal Mandate near but they did not try to stop me."

The APCs the _Pirates_ had appropriated were in a level below ground, so close Chloe was sure she could reach them in a few minutes but they were useless while networked. She hated to leave the invaluable vehicle behind but escaping was now everything. Sabb led them outside, the sun low enough in the sky to send the shadow of the city above away from the doorway. The Dune-Skipper was closer to the buggies the Joddrel Town Steel Warriors had been in than a military vehicle, although it did have a short-barrelled machine gun on a bar between the front and rear seats. A rad-shield was over the open-topped vehicle.

"You know this isn't going to get us home, right?" Chloe checked.

"There are armoured carriers," Stokes told her but Chloe's attention was on an android coming round a pillar. Its head swivelled in their direction and the gun in its hands swung down.

"Back!" Chloe warned and pulled the captain into the building.

The robot fired and, either by design or chance, the rail slug tore into Sabb.

"We go for our APCs," Chloe decided, ignoring the spray of red she had seen as the major had died.

"Your vehicles are worse than the Dune-Skippers," Stokes objected but was staring at the remains of his colleague. More rail gun slugs tore through the building and someone screamed.

"Run," Chloe ordered and did not wait to see if either Stokes or Torus followed.

SEVENTEEN

Max was starting to feel more alert after eating, drinking and sleeping. Repeatedly rewinding time - or her perspective of it at least - to save Emma's hand from being mutilated had pushed her to the limit and then they had been fleeing without chance for respite. Even the cart ride between the two buildings had not generated enough adrenalin to overcome her fatigue. The jacket Chloe had appropriated for her had hardly served as a blanket but Max had huddled into it as best as she could.

She looked up then at Osira, who returned her apprehension.

"Gunfire, mistress," Obix announced, confirming Max's fear.

"Get ready to move," Max instructed but then there was the nerve-wracking wait for who would next come through the door. Max wanted to go and help, especially as she was probably rested enough for another rewind, despite the throbbing in her head that almost seemed to be a permanent fixture.

"Can your machine find and help them?" Daphne Stokes asked.

"Yes but Obix needs to stay here," Osira replied.

"Why? What is more important than getting my husband back?" Daphne demanded.

"Hacking into the Eternal Mandate's network," Osira answered distractedly.

Max doubted Daphne knew what that meant just as she had no idea what hacking entailed but it was their best hope for escaping. Now, if Chloe would return quickly they could get moving.

The door banged open making everyone jump and Chloe rushed in, followed by Captain Stokes.

"We're taking the dumb waiter down to the basement," she announced. "It's not going to be comfortable but they are searching for us."

Max followed her out, hearing shouting and screaming from the floors below.

"The bastards would have had us but people came out of the offices to see what was happening and got in the way," Chloe reported as Stokes led them at pace through the fourth floor. More uniformed men were crowding the corridor, asking what was happening. Those with circlets said there was no cause for alarm even while everyone could hear people shouting from the lower levels.

"E-M androids are approaching this level," Osira warned but there was little they could do with the information.

"You're them, the ones the Eternal Mandate are looking for!" someone called and Stokes rounded on him, loudly giving his spiel on the Eternal Mandate being the enemy of the Knights of Liberty. Whether it was a deliberate distraction, an attempt to persuade the soldier or intimidate him into not reporting their location, it gave Max and the others a chance to get away down the corridor. Unfortunately, no-one else knew where to go, with Osira complaining about the lack of digital blueprints to access and Chloe sticking her head into rooms then apologising with a snarky comment likely to bring more attention.

"Just looking for the ladies' restroom," she told one group of uniformed troops. To another: "Those circlets are nice but you really want some earrings and a necklace to go with them. Perhaps a piercing or two." Then, deciding on a room she wanted: "the Eternal Mandate have shot some of your people. Go downstairs and help them!"

"Who are you? Why are you in uniform?" someone demanded.

"Are you seriously concerned by that when your comrades are bleeding out?" Chloe retorted and Max shook her head at her love's ability to be flippant in the direst situations. Of course, that did not mean she was calm and relaxed.

"Torus, watch for Stokes coming back so he knows where we are," Chloe directed the Steel Warrior, who nodded and sketched a salute. Somehow, Torus looked even more unsuited to a uniform than Chloe but he was at least male. Max checked the room out, a simple series of half a dozen desks with typewriters and a blackboard with what appeared to be training battle plans in white chalk but then Captain Stokes re-joined them.

"We need to hurry," he declared and they were into the corridor again, walking quickly to a supply area. The dumb waiter, running through an alcove in the walls, evidently worked to transfer all manner of goods between different levels, making Max wonder what prevented people taking things that were not assigned to them. The room had several crates stacked against a wall and a trio of men who came to attention on seeing the captain.

Stokes spoke with the workers - these in dark blue uniforms - and gave his speech about striking back against the Eternal Mandate but they seemed indifferent and Max had the impression it was not the first time people had ridden in the lifts. Impatient with Stokes trying to co-opt the supply troops, Chloe climbed into the dumb waiter lift, crouching into the space which was wide but only four feet high.

"You have a fricking, flaming thermal vent but can't hook it to a winch?" she queried as a couple of the troops started winding a handle while the third picked up a speaking tube to alert the lower level. Chloe disappeared into the dark hole, sticking her tongue out and bulging her eyes as she went.

"I regret nothing!" her voice echoed up the funnel.

The process was frustratingly slow. Emma offered to help but the workers looked offended by the idea and continued winding at a steady rate. The platform came up and Max went down into the hole next, finding the experience of reverberating sounds and darkness strange. People were still shouting but the sound remained muted even as she got closer to the ground floor. She waved at the workers on the other floors as the lift took her past but most seemed surprised and went from view before they could react.

Chloe helped her out and, despite everything that was happening, for a moment there was just the two of them, holding hands with Max looking up into two amused azure eyes, all the history and experiences and absences held in that moment. If not for the peripheral movement and noises, Max could almost believe time had frozen again, like when she was on the roof with Kate Marsh, a lifetime ago. That ability had never manifested again but staring at Chloe sometimes felt like the rest of the world stopped.

It had not, however, and she became aware of workers looking at them curiously. Max suspected the highly regimented people were perplexed by one woman in a now dirty white dress with a man's green jacket gazing up at another in an ill-fitting uniform. It was probably more strangeness than they had seen in a while.

"More are coming, if you can help," Max told them. The team consisted of another three men and they had clearly got the directions from above as nods greeted her request. They pulled on rope cables and soon Emma, Osira and Obix joined them.

"I am in," Osira announced quietly and it took Max a moment to understand she meant the Eternal Mandate's network.

"And?" Chloe prompted, coming across as Osira plugged herself back into Obix but the mech warned of people approaching. The presence of the mech unsettled the workers, causing a buzz of apprehension.

"One Eternal Mandate robot and three humans are moving towards this location," he announced.

"Hide!" Chloe and Max said simultaneously, heading towards crates that were piled against the wall. Obix, still tied to Osira, rapidly moved some of the containers to make a hiding place. The workers stared open-mouthed at the one-armed mech effortlessly moving heavy boxes with speed beyond what a human could manage. Max guessed they would have plenty to talk about for weeks to come but then her attention was on squeezing into the space with the rest of the pirates.

"Please, don't tell them we are here," Max begged the workers. "We are friends to the Knights of Liberty and the Eternal Mandate will kill us just for that."

It was hardly Captain Stokes' assured certainty and the trio of workers stared at her then at each other as she hid in the space behind the crates just as the door was opening.

"Group hug," Chloe whispered as Max peered through a crack between crates. A black-uniformed Eternal Mandate soldier entered, followed by one of the angular androids then two Knights of Liberty in pale grey uniforms with red flashes. All of the humans wore the circlets.

"Traitors to the Eternal Mandate have shot our people and security robots," the leader announced, then gave a synopsis of the group that got the main details right. "These outsiders have to be found to maintain peace and order. Harbouring them will make you guilty by association. Have you seen them?"

Max could not see the workers and held her breath, preparing to rewind time while wondering what she could do differently. Chloe grasped her hand and Max knew it was from wanting to go with her if rewinding became necessary. She saw the Eternal Mandate troop look at the android, although said nothing, presumably using the circlet to communicate with it.

The dumb waiter came down with Torus crouched in it. Max watched his grin disappear and him freeze in place, sat cross-legged and staring at the backs of the soldiers. There was a long pause before the lift was raised and a wide-eyed Torus disappeared up again.

"Report the presence of these disruptive dissidents immediately," the man directed and strode out with the android and two Knights in tow. Max let out the breath she had been holding and climbed out of their hiding place to thank the workers, who seemed to appreciate the gratitude. Behind her, Osira was explaining to Emma that she had managed to access the android via Obix and erase their profiles, preventing it detecting them.

"It is a war machine," Osira said and paused, distracted by something she had seen on the network images in her mind, eventually continuing: "it's not ideally suited for locating non-combatants but I had to interrupt it relaying data to the Eternal Mandate soldier while detailing this circlet and our rail guns as being assigned to people friendly to it." Her voice tailed off as she concentrated on infiltrating the circlet-connected network.

Chloe, a bit too eagerly, used the speaker funnel to give the all clear before giving a toot-toot and grinning. The workers were not amused.

Torus reappeared, checking the room was clear before stepping out and stretching.

"Uncomfortable in there," he commented. "Those E-M's have gone, then?"

"Yes, for now," Emma told him. "What's the next step Chloe-mom?" she asked.

"Can you get us out of here, Oz?" Chloe checked.

"I believe so," Osira answered. "I am working on it but our vehicles are where we left them and I should be able to avoid having their departure noticed on the network. They show on the information grid but the Eternal Mandate have not moved them as they were not assigned to the Knights. Of course, anyone seeing the vehicles moving may well order them stopped but I hope to be able to do something about that."

The Stokes family began appearing, the two youngest together despite the small area in the lift shaft, then Jordan, their mother and father. Chloe already had her head in the corridor and held up a hand as the captain made to speak.

"We are heading to our vehicles, they are the best for getting us out of here," she declared.

"I have seen those contraptions. We are going for our armoured vehicles," Stokes countered.

"They are better than they look," Chloe said and closed her eyes, taking a breath before continuing. "They are APCs with some crap thrown over them. Unless yours are like super tanks or something, we are going with ours. We have to now be close enough to them so we won't need some mad dash across to your shed, either. Oz has the network hacked so we can get away."

"I actually said I am working on it," Osira corrected.

Stokes stared at her for a moment then nodded. Max could tell Chloe was struggling not to make some flippant remark, then the captain was leading them on towards their vehicles, taking them through the underground area until they were at the vehicle park. Seeing their transport made Max smile and think how easy it was to mistake them for junk. With faded paint, including Chloe's artwork, bullet holes and scoured by sand, the ceramic plates appeared on the verge of falling apart. She hoped the vehicles beneath were as secure as Chloe had said.

As though on cue, a plate fell off and Chloe was digging through a tool box to fit it back on but the armoured side beneath was revealed and the captain stood inspecting it. He turned to Max.

"You can get my family to the Order?" he asked.

She was about to assure him they could but too many people had died for that. The Horizon's receptionist, Fitzgerald came to mind, an early supporter of the P_irates_ against her employers but then lying in a bloody pool in the lobby, killed by the mercenaries sent by the Eternal Mandate.

"I can't make any guarantees but we are their best chance," Max told him and glanced at Osira, silently hacking a system completely different to what she knew.

"Take care of them. I will be staying here to organise the resistance," he declared.

"You're what?" Chloe demanded, turning from hammering the ceramic plate back.

"Staying," Stokes stated.

"You're abandoning your family?" Chloe questioned and looked like she was considering throwing the hammer at him. Daphne Stokes stalked across to her.

"My husband is doing his duty," she said. "I expect nothing less." Daphne nodded to her husband and even smiled affectionately.

"His duty by leaving you with three children in a foreign land?" Chloe retorted. "Oh, very heroic."

"Do you think I would not rather be with my wife and children?" the captain asked. "I am doing what has to be done."

"It is nothing to do with you," Daphne told Chloe. She looked to Max, who was torn between supporting her love while believing Mrs. Stokes was correct.

"Chloe," Max said softly and led her a short way from the others while Stokes addressed his family.

"You can't think this is right," Chloe snapped.

"I don't," Max answered. "But it's not my choice to make. Imagine if someone said you have to sacrifice us to save the Order or…" she nearly said 'Arcadia Bay' but that was uncomfortably close to the opposite of what she had done, letting a storm devastate their home town to save Chloe.

"If someone is wrong, Max, you don't just let them go on being wrong when it affects children," Chloe objected, although with less fire.

"Chloe, if someone told you to raise Emma differently..." Max responded and let the statement stand unfinished.

"That's different: I'm always right," Chloe said but sighed and stared at the Stokes. The captain was shaking hands with his sons, then kneeling to address his daughter at eye-level.

"There's another consideration. The Order cannot hold against the Eternal Mandate. Having Stokes here stirring up trouble buys them time," Max explained. "From what I know, there's nowhere to flee to, even if we are prepared to abandon Oz and the Order."

Chloe swore vehemently and Max watched her mull the idea. Max wanted to push the arguments but knew Chloe was better working through them herself.

"Obix could force Stokes into an APC and tie him up," Chloe considered but it was not a serious suggestion. "I could not do it," she added, so softly Max could barely hear and she felt the same. _Is there any limit to what I would allow destroyed to keep her and Emma safe? _Max wondered.

"E-Ms are coming," Osira warned, announcing that time had run out. The soft-int specialist, whose roles now included hacking secure networks, faced the captain.

"Without a recording device, this is of limited use but, as you are staying, it may be of interest," Osira declared and the speakers on the APC crackled to life projecting a conversation she must have come across.

"Their leaders jumped to their death like sheep to the slaughter," a man's voice declared, the Eternal Mandate accent blatant.

"These backward fools had no chance anyway," another said and the captain's face went bright red as he gave a curt nod.

"We have to go," Chloe declared.

Max noted Stokes giving a brief, awkward hug to his wife that made her wonder how he had ever managed to procreate while Osira and Obix were already climbing into their APC.

"Emma, Torus and Jordan, you are with us," Chloe declared. "Daphne, Dahlia and Harold, you get to keep Oz and Obe company. Stokes, it's been a pleasure," she told the captain and held her hand out. Max watched him grind his teeth but shake Chloe's hand.

"Just keep them safe," Stokes ordered and Chloe nodded.

Then, with one last glance at his family, he was striding away and everyone bundled into the vehicles.

"This is… a mess," Jordan stated but there was a tremor in his voice. For all his bravado, he was now separated from his family with his father staying in Sun City and the others in a different vehicle.

"Welcome to our world," Torus grinned as Max settled into the passenger seat beside Chloe and both put silver circlets on.

The adjustment was always disconcerting, to suddenly have images projected into her mind and it took concentration not to have the device displaying things she did not want it to. Most instructions required her to think 'enact' before them but the more she tried not to bring the word to mind, the more it sprang into her thoughts. The circlet would then make a flashing cursor appear in her mind's eye, awaiting for the following command. _How does anyone manage to control their thoughts enough to use this?_

Some form of tutorial appeared but there was no time to go through it, even with her ability.

_Enact: show surroundings including Eternal Mandate forces._

To her surprise, the circlet showed the underground garage with friendly green icons showing approaching hostile Eternal Mandate troops and androids.

"Drive," Osira's voice came over the circlet, her APC already moving.

"What's happening?" Jordan Stokes asked and Max explained that they were leaving as the APC thrummed into life.

"The Eternal Mandate can shut the vehicle down so Osira is trying to stop them," Max said as Chloe accelerated the vehicle through the parking lot, following the other APC.

Max heard a crack with an accompanying tremor through the vehicle.

"They are shooting at us," she declared. More cracking sounds followed but then the vehicle was out of line of sight of the firers. Max hoped the armour could withstand rail rifle fire and the lack of holes was a good sign. Until she had felt the shots hitting the vehicle, the icons in her head had given a sense of disconnect from reality, as though playing a video game. It was hard to associate those small icons with rail weapons that tore through people like they were paper.

The circlet was flashing more symbols, presumably querying why they were taking fire from supposedly units.

"The fucking turret won't target them," Chloe grumbled and Max caught Osira on the network saying she was working on it.

_Enact: send to Chloe and Osira - can the E-M's hear us on this?_

For a moment she wondered if the command had sent properly.

"Not with the amount of conversations being held on the network," Osira responded after a minute while Max brought the holographic display up in the main compartment so Emma, Torus and Jordan Stokes could see what was happening. In part, it was so the latter would move back from standing crouched behind their seat at the entrance to the driver's cabin.

The APC began angling upwards and then it was outside. The map in Max's mind expanded accordingly and she saw several parked APCs displayed. They showed as green but immediately fired. The lead vehicle with Osira, Obix and most of the Stokes family disappeared from the display but there was no time to think as rail cannon slugs smashed into Max's APC.

The vehicle rocked from the rounds slamming into it, cracking open the sides with thunderous bangs. From the flash of pain, something had hit her. Her vision blurred as she was shaken by the reverberations and cacophony. Heart racing, she rewound time.

The sides of the APC stitched back together with a distorted roaring sound in reverse. The vehicle went backwards towards the ramp and Osira's vehicle reappeared on the display. She kept going back, feeling the rewinding getting more difficult, like trying to walk through a muddy field with boots getting increasingly heavy.

"Not with the amount of conversations being held," Osira said.

"Stop," Max gasped, feeling as though a rail gun slug had hit her head. Blood trickled out of her nose. Chloe passed the instruction on through the circlet and both APCs halted on the ramp. The blue-haired woman looked at her with concern.

"They are waiting for us," Max explained. The acrid, metallic smell of blood filled her nose as she wiped it away before it dripped onto the dress. "Half a dozen APCs."

Chloe reported it to Osira.

"I have them locked down," the soft-int specialist reported, a little icon representing the woman appearing in her mind.

"You don't," Max told her and there was a long pause.

"What's going on?" Jordan Stokes asked. "Why have we stopped?"

"The E-Ms have APCs covering one of the obvious escape routes out," Chloe answered. "Curse their deviousness." Jordan looked at Chloe uncertainly and Max suppressed a laugh, despite her concern.

"How can we beat them?" he queried and Max wondered if the boy was thinking of his father.

"I don't know," Max told him before Chloe could be flippant.

"I see what the problem is," Osira said through the circlet. "There. Yes, that should sort it. Let's go: there are troops moving up the ramp behind us."

Max sometimes wished the rewinding erased the memories or at least made them fade faster than normal ones but part of her had yet to calm down from their APC being hit by rail cannon rounds. Her ability had undone what had happened but her experience of it was no less real. The headache sending spikes into her skull was almost a welcome distraction from thinking about the massive blows that had cracked the graphene armour of the vehicle.

The APC eased forward again and re-enacting the same moment had Max tense, waiting for the icons to flash images of vehicles firing with warning exclamation marks. It was almost as bad having the sensation of something about to happen but it not actually occuring, like dropping a weight onto her toes but it never arriving.

"The Eternal Mandate are countering my instructions," Osira warned and both APCs accelerated, racing across the sand beneath the floor of Sun City. They passed from under its shadows and into relative sunlight but it made little difference in the vehicle. The engine rose to a higher pitch and the speed on rough terrain began taxing even the APC's reinforced suspension.

Max could see the Eternal Mandate APCs following but still not firing.

"Give me fire control," Chloe ordered.

"The guns will not target them," Osira responded. "Normally, the limitation could be dismissed but I cannot refine the block to just this vehicle so they would be able to fire as well."

"I'll feel better if I can shoot something," Chloe countered and Osira evidently gave control of their vehicle's rail cannons to her.

"What if we switch between blocking and unblocking firing?" Max suggested. "Would we have time to fire before they did?"

"Once, perhaps," Osira admitted. "Be ready."

"These things are so… not tactile," Chloe muttered. "I think I have it programmed to fire."

Max heard the rising whine and thump of the rail cannons firing, with Emma explaining to Jordan Stokes what the noise was. In her mind and on the holographic table, the scene played out with the vehicle's Lidar and cameras relaying what had happened. Some areas were blank where the ceramic plates blocked the sensors. Like a waking dream, Max saw kinetic explosions against the lead APC. There were no flames but a shattering impact against the armour that threw up nearby dirt.

"Yes!" Chloe exclaimed but then swore. "A hit but not destroyed. Oz, can we try again?"

"They will be ready," Osira replied. "We should not risk it."

Chloe nodded and glanced at Max with a shrug. The APCs were traveling at close to 100 kph, which Max automatically converted to 60 mph, and close to their maximum cross-country speed. There was a road but it was just compressed sand and uneven so the vehicles were bouncing more than the suspension could cope with. Everyone had strapped in.

Drones appeared on the mind's eye display, with Max stopping herself giving a warning as Chloe and Osira would already know.

"I can mark them as hostile but will allow them to get closer first," Osira reported. Max peered round the seat to check on Emma, sat watching the display with Torus and Jordan Stokes. Her daughter looked up, smiled and gave a thumbs up, making Max marvel at how at ease she seemed. With the two APCs bumping along a dirt road at a hundred kilometres per hour pursued by Eternal Mandate vehicles and drones, Max felt like skipping back through time to stop the trip to Sun City before it started.

Beside her, Chloe's face showed excited concentration and Max wondered at how she could find the situation thrilling. It sometimes made her wonder if they had a normal life if Chloe would eventually tire of her, given she did not find dicing with death that appealing. Perhaps sensing her scrutiny, Chloe turned and grinned, putting on some fast-paced music that added to the adrenalin.

Max just about caught Jordan Stokes' query of: "what is that atrocious noise?"

"Fire!" Osira suddenly ordered and Max heard the almost immediate thrum and whine of the rail cannon.

Max watched the representation of the drones exploding and falling to the ground with tails of black smoke. Despite the computer targeting doing all the work, Chloe was cheering and swearing.

"It's like the best video game ever," the blue-haired woman laughed. "Bang! There's the last of them."

Max saw the final drone begin evasive manoeuvres but still have one solar panelled wing blasted off and drop to the ground spinning like a sycamore seed.

Chloe held up her hand and Max gave her a high-five.

"Cora Drift coming up," Osira announced. "They could be waiting for us. They're round my blocks but I have automatic fire off for now: everyone will be firing manually. Reworking but standby for incoming fire."

Max wondered at how calm the int-soft specialist sounded, as though saying the tea was nearly brewed. _Am I the only one scared almost beyond rational thought?_

"I hate not having something to actually move," Chloe complained as the APC swerved without her physically moving anything. For all the realism of the hologram and the images, Max still felt disconnected from what was happening, even having experienced the APC taking rail cannon rounds. Their pursuers fired and missed. The double whine and thump of their own cannons sounded but the slugs went far over the tops of the Eternal Mandate vehicles.

"Max, can you shoot?" Chloe asked.

"I'll give it a go… yes," Max replied, although Emma would have been a better choice. But then, that was asking their daughter to try to kill people, even if those people were trying to kill them.

Max took a minute to understand the mental commands, trying to control her thoughts to get the guns firing where she wanted. The APC with Osira, Obix and the majority of the Stoke's family was already shooting back passed them and she guessed the mech was targeting as a series of slugs hit an Eternal Mandate one, despite it weaving. The shots had gone low and shredded through the tyres on one side, causing the vehicle to slew to a stop.

Plenty of neutral icons showed around Cora Drift but nothing showed as green or red, either of which could be hostile to them given the computer's propensity to identify anything belonging to the Eternal Mandate as friendly. They sped through the open gate and under the yellow rad-shield, music blaring and wheels throwing up sand. Buildings flashed past with residents shocked blurs as the APC hurtled through Cora's Drift. The shooting ceased while the structures were blocking line of sight. Chloe swore as she had to swing the vehicle around someone stood open-mouthed in the middle of a crossroads, clipped a cart and then straightened the APC before grumbling again about everything being done mentally.

"Give me a steering wheel or a control stick or a fucking console pad," Chloe spat but the APC raced on into the dust thrown up by Osira's machine.

Chloe turned to Max and grinned and she could not help but return the gesture.

"Just like old times," Chloe said and whooped as they went through the far gate at 100 kilometres per hour without touching the sides.

Then they were out in open desert and Max targeted the gateway, waiting for the first Eternal Mandate APC to appear.

"Hold him steady a moment," Max requested and Chloe kept the APC driving straight, although it still bumped over the uneven ground.

The instant the Eternal Mandate machine filled the Cora's Drift gateway, she fired repeatedly, having a fixed point to aim at. Obix was firing as well, aiming low to disable the APC but Max could not trust her shooting and went for the centre point. Heavy rail slugs of graphene smashed against the armour and cracked it apart. The following rounds ripped through the hull and Max shied from considering the damage they would cause to the occupants. The Eternal Mandate vehicle ploughed to a halt, firmly blocking the gateway.

"Now, let's get away from here before they back up and get round," Chloe said as Max sat back in the seat.

The two APCs sped away from the Cora's Drift and back towards the Grand Fault Order, the trailing vehicle playing 'Bad Reputation' at close to full volume.

END

44


End file.
